Court places injunction over dismissal of Yendi Hospital workers

The Tamale High Court has placed an interim injunction on a decision by the management of the Yendi Regional Hospital to dismiss 91 workers from the hospital for the hospital’s alleged lack of funds.

The motion was filed by the Northern Regional Directorate of the Commission on Human Rights and Administrative Justice (CHRAJ) on behalf of the aggrieved workers who are said not to have received their salaries from the hospital since April this year.

Briefing

In an interview with the Daily Graphic, the Northern Regional Director of CHRAJ, Mr. Stephen Azantilow, said the court made the declaration last Monday.

According to him, his outfit received complaints from the workers that comprised pharmacists, laboratory technicians, orderlies, labourers and mortuary attendants on June 1, 2018 to the effect that they had not been paid their salaries for the last four months, neither had their Social Security and National Insurance Trust (SSNIT) contributions nor Second Tier pension contributions been paid since June 2018.

Prior to seeking the intervention of CHRAJ, the workers claimed to have also complained to management over their grievances but they were not addressed.

Mr. Azantilow said while conducting investigations into the case, he realized that the management of the hospital was actually in the process of making new recruitments to replace the affected workers.

The director stated that management had actually put up a notice and sent circulars to the affected staff over their decision to terminate the aggrieved workers’ appointment.

Action

According to Mr. Azantilow, his outfit then issued an originating motion on notice to the management of the hospital last week Friday to protect the rights of the workers.

The commission followed up to the Tamale High Court to file an ex parte motion for an interim injunction to stop the management of the hospital from carrying out their threat of dismissal.

Concerns

The director described the situation of the workers as pathetic, stating: “How can you dismiss them by circulars when you gave them appointment letters? The fact that you find yourself in a privileged position as management does not mean that you can abuse your powers.”

He further indicated that “we are a country that is governed by the rule of law. The Labour Act makes provision on how employees can be sacked, and so we need to respect our laws since we are practicing constitutional democracy”.